The Sacrificial Lamb (56 page)

“Shane and I were never engaged. I don’t know why he told you that. We aren’t together anymore. I ended things the day you were shot.” Alex watched Domenic exhale and decided to jump in with both feet. “Did you sleep with Fiona?”

“God, no!” he burst out. “How could you even ask me that? I can’t stand that woman!”

Alex started to laugh then. Her heart felt ten times lighter, but it was still burdened. “I don’t know. I thought maybe she was a
perk
.”

Domenic grimaced and looked down at his hands, which dangled between his thighs. “I should’ve never said that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” she replied in a steely tone. “Was it true?”

“No,” he said, looking up at her. “Alex, I am an accomplished liar. I have to be. But what I said that day in the courthouse was unforgivable.”

“Then why?”

He groaned, bringing his hands up and scrubbing at his face. He did it gingerly, aware of his injury. They had removed his epidural catheter, and he was subsisting only on pain medication. Alex watched Domenic struggle to find words for a moment. He lowered his hands and his face was drawn in a painful expression.

“I thought you had chosen Shane. Instead of
asking
you, I figured it was better to just let you think I never really wanted you.”

Alex began laughing again, this time humorlessly. “Then you get shot for your efforts. Well, I hope that taught you a lesson.”

“It kind of did,” he scoffed, shaking his head. Subconsciously, his hand rose and ran over the bandage covering his gunshot wound.

“Why did you believe Shane?” she asked softly.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because I told you that I loved you,” she stressed, beginning to feel the first stirrings of anger.

“That was before.”

“Before I found out you were working undercover, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“Before I found out you had been lying to me for weeks?” Alex said, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice but not quite succeeding.

“Yes.”

“So you thought I wouldn’t love you anymore once I found out.”

“Something like that.”

“You’re such a…a…a man!” she burst out, pushing away from the door and walking toward him. “If I loved you when I thought you were a cold-blooded criminal, why the hell would you think that would stop because I found out you lied about it?”

“Why didn’t you break up with Shane right away?” he fired back, stopping her in her tracks.

“What?” Alex felt her face tingle and her stomach plummet.

“If you loved me so goddamn much, why didn’t you break up with Shane as soon as you got back? You didn’t end things with him till
after
I got shot. Isn’t that what you said?”

“Well…yes…but…stop trying to turn this around!”

“What the hell was I supposed to think, Alexis? You come around the corner with him draped all over you, and then he tells me you’re engaged? Fuck! Can you blame me for acting like I did?”

“No! Yes! You should have asked me
instead
of assuming things!”

“Asked you what? What the hell was I supposed to ask you? I hadn’t seen you in over a week. I knew by then you had found out the truth and hated me for it. For all I knew, you could have decided it was all just a fling brought on by our situation and that everything had been a mistake.”

Domenic’s voice cracked and his hands came up to his face, rubbing fiercely before slicking back his hair away from his forehead. Alex stood in the middle of the room, torn between staying where she was and going to him. There was so much bitterness and acrimony on both their sides. Wounds had been allowed to fester and rot with doubt. Both of them had been so stupid. If they had talked to one another, they could have avoided so much pain.

“It wasn’t a mistake,” she whispered.

“Wasn’t it?” he asked sadly. “Alex, how are we supposed to make this work? I am so fucked in the head right now—the shit I’ve seen. The shit I’ve
done
.”

“But it was for a good cause!”

“What does it fucking matter!” he cried out. “And now I have a target on my head. Alex, I’m no good for you. My life—it’s too dangerous right now.”

“I don’t care! Don’t you think it was dangerous before? I wanted you then, and I want you now. Domenic, when are you going to stop pushing me away?”

“I can’t keep putting you in danger,” he said in a pained voice. “I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if something happened to you because of me.”

“So you’d rather live without me at all?” Alex asked, closing the distance between them. Stepping between Domenic’s knees, she took his face in her hands. “You’d rather be alone?”

Leaning forward, she brushed her lips against his, goose bumps rippling up her arms. Domenic closed his eyes and clasped her around the waist, pressing his mouth harder against hers, a small noise escaping him. Alex opened her mouth to deepen the kiss and whimpered in return. Everything melted away, and she focused solely on the joining of their lips.

It felt like she hadn’t kissed him in forever, yet still her body remembered the rhythm of his. She had to remain aware of the fact that he was still injured, which was difficult to do when all she wanted was to crush him against her. It felt as if she was being engulfed in flames—the heat began between her thighs and spread outward like a flash fire.

“God, I missed you,” he groaned out against her neck as his lips traveled over the sensitive flesh.

“I missed you, too,” she said against his hair before trailing kisses across his forehead. “I won’t let you leave me,” she said fiercely, tugging his head back so she could look him in the eye. “Do you hear me?”

Domenic smiled and nodded before tilting his face up and capturing her lips with his. After kissing for a few minutes longer, things were getting too heated and she needed to pull away. Alex would have loved nothing more than to get carried away, but Domenic still wasn’t in any condition for strenuous physical exercise. After being apart for two weeks, she doubted either of them could control themselves enough for the care needed to try post-operative sex. She eased Domenic’s shoulders back.

“Lie down,” she said firmly. He gave her that sexy grin that always made her heart beat faster and complied. “Don’t even think about it, mister.”

Alex crawled in and curled up against his right side. She placed her hand on his chest, making sure to stay away from his incision, and rested her head on his shoulder. Domenic wrapped his arm around her and cuddled her against him.

“I didn’t break up with Shane because I didn’t know what to say to him. It kind of seemed wrong after everything we’d been through to just say, ‘Hey, thanks for the good times, but I’m in love with the mobster who kidnapped me from my kidnappers.’”

Domenic snorted but otherwise remained silent.

“And then I found out you were working undercover, and it made me wonder if maybe everything you had told me was a lie. Maybe you didn’t feel anything for me at all. Maybe it was just all in my head.

“I should have ended it, and I was going to, but I just kept putting it off. It never seemed to be a good time and whenever I
did
try, I felt so horribly guilty. It was wrong to keep Shane hanging, but I wanted to talk to you and find out if what
we
had was real.”

“Would you have stayed with him if it wasn’t?”

“No. Shane deserves better than that. I wasn’t in love with him anymore, and he should be with someone who is.”

Domenic remained silent.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” she asked after a few minutes had passed.

“Yes,” he sighed. “On our last day together. But then the Liseni found us, and you know what happened after that.”

“You didn’t trust me?”

“It wasn’t about trust, Alex. I couldn’t risk it. If we had gotten caught again? It would have been bad. Worse than you can imagine.”

“It was a horrible feeling knowing you’d lied to me,” she murmured.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Domenic pulled her in closer still and placed a kiss on top of her head. Things weren’t perfect and there were still issues they would have to work through, but Alex had some hope now that perhaps they could pull through. She let her eyes drift shut and smiled, feeling safer than she had in weeks.

The next morning, she returned to the hospital. Alex had been loath to leave the night before, but Domenic insisted she go back to the safe house so she could get some proper sleep. They had spent the next couple of hours talking about what had been happening in their worlds. She laughed at his stories about how Fiona had annoyed him to no end, and he became quiet and pensive when she told him how life had been for her while they were apart.

They had shared small stolen touches and kisses the entire time, and she had wished they could fast forward to when Domenic was healed. Until then, she would just have to be patient.

Smiling to herself, she rode up the elevator, excited to see Domenic again and hoping that the ease they’d had with one another last night was still there this morning. The doors opened, and she saw Russell and Bianca standing at the nurse’s station. Her smile faded as she took them in. Russell had his arm curled tightly against Bianca whose face was pressed against his chest. Her shoulders shook, and Alex could tell she was crying.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, rushing up to them. “Is something wrong with Domenic?”

Russell’s lips were compressed in a thin line, and Bianca turned a tear-streaked face to her.

“He’s gone, Alex!” she replied in a desperate voice.

“Gone? What do you mean
gone?”

“She means the dumb bastard checked out of the hospital this morning against the doctor’s orders.”

“But…where did he go?”

“No one knows,” Russell replied grimly. His wife curled against him again, a fresh set of tears beginning to flow. Alex sat down hard in one of the waiting chairs, feeling numb. Yesterday Domenic seemed like he had agreed that they should stay together, and she’d believed him. Now she knew he had said that to appease her, so she could have one last untainted moment in time where separation wasn’t looming over their heads.

Alex, I am an accomplished liar. I have to be.

And that was when she realized Domenic had disappeared.

A
LEX
F
IDDLED
W
ITH
T
HE
L
OCK
of her new apartment door and rushed inside to grab the ringing phone. She recognized the number from the call display and smiled to herself.

“Hi, Shane.”

“Hey, baby! How are ya?”

“Shane…” she said with a warning in her voice.

“I know, I know. Old habits die hard. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said, laughing. “Just don’t let Nadine hear you say that, or she’ll hunt me down and kill me!”

Both of them laughed, but Alex wasn’t entirely joking. She had known Nadine from when she lived in Boulder, and she could be a vicious thing. When Shane had gone back home, she had been going through a bad breakup as well. Misery loves company, so she and Shane began spending time together, and eventually it had turned into more.

They talked for a bit longer before saying goodbye. While Alex loved the fact that Shane and she had been able to keep their friendship, talking to him was bittersweet. Hearing about him and Nadine always reminded her of Domenic. Not that she needed any additional reminders—everything reminded her of Domenic.

With the Sutherlands’ help, they had tried to find out information about Domenic’s whereabouts with absolutely no luck. All doors were slammed unceremoniously in their faces. After a few weeks, they had given up. Alex and her father had stayed in protective custody while in Chicago, but the threat against them seemed minimal. Still, John Montgomery wasn’t convinced Chicago was a safe place for her to live and tried to talk her into returning to Montana with him.